Even on a good day, things rarely seem to go my way. Today, for example, the new daybed from Modernica arrived (see above). We got it on sale, but still, dear readers, it wasn’t cheap. The delivery men “assembled” it, then left. (We paid a premium for this service, by the way, which consisted, basically, of them removing the plastic from the cushions and placing them on the back of the couch. Most impressive.)

Myra-Jean, the dog and I stared, transfixed, at our new piece of especially fancy, beautifully soft, very orange furniture. I knew my husband would be dying to see it, so I ran out of the room, cackling gleefully, to get my camera. As I returned I heard the sudden “click” of the dog’s paws, furtive and urgent, on the hardwood floors. This is a sound that basically translates to: “shit, she’s coming!” and generally signifies her flight from one of the chairs in our living room as I enter it. Today, of course, it meant that in the three and a half seconds I was out of the room she had taken the opportunity to get up on the daybed — you know, to check out the next piece of furniture she’s going to callously destroy — and then precipitously thrown herself off of it at the sound of my approach. When I entered the room she was, of course, seated innocently on the floor presenting her best “what?” face. No matter. The smoking gun, as it were, was quite apparent. We had just been for a walk — of course through a muddy field — so…yup. Mud prints in four places. As I stared at these, horrified, I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, that MJ was at the other end of the daybed running her shoes — placed over her fingers like mittens —  lovingly over the surface. Soles down. Same shoes that had just been in — you guessed it. Unbelievable. It is uncanny to me how she and the dog work in concert. I sometimes feel they have been sent as a team from a mocking God to make me release every aspiration towards order I could ever have, or dream of having.

So the daybed is here. It is “assembled.” It is orange. It is gorgeous.

And I will spend all of naptime cleaning it. &^$)(&%^#